Who We Are

Alcohol Research UK is an independent charity that tackles alcohol-related harm by funding high quality, impartial research. Since 1980, we have produced over 100 reports into alcohol harm, treatment, policy and culture.

Latest from Drug and Alcohol Findings

Official assessment of Scotland’s national alcohol strategy says changes to licensing laws are unlikely to have affected alcohol-related harm, but that the brief interventions drive and the ban on quantity discounts may have contributed to recent declines in alcohol consumption and harms.

News

In May 2014 the Centre for History in Public Health at LSHTM ran a History and Policy Seminar on local and national alcohol policy with speakers from Alcohol Research UK, Middlesex University and Public Health England. The report is available here.

A new report looking at the relationship between sight loss and substance use finds that while alcohol consumption is generally lower among people with visual impairment, it can present real challenges when problematic use arises. This study provides the first UK overview of prevalence while presenting key insights into the issues faced by people both accessing and providing relevant services.

Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) researchers analysing the role of alcohol in intimate partner abuse have found that two-thirds of domestic incidents known to the police were found to involve at least one of the couple concerned being under the influence of alcohol.

A new report by Alcohol Research UK and the Alcohol Academy calls for a full review of the law on sales to drunk customers. In many cases sales to drunk customers appear to be the norm, but annual prosecutions for the offence are rarely more than single figures. The 2012 Government Alcohol Strategy said it would look […]

Latest Reports and Briefings

Research and Development Grant

Phase one of this research was an exploration of alcohol marketing and user interaction with brands popular among young people. Phase two, in-depth focus group discussions with friendship groups of young people, exploring the role of SNS and official and peer generated alcohol content in their drinking cultures and individual and peer group identities. Finally Phase three was a content analysis of young people’s Facebook profiles, examining how alcohol featured as part of their online identities and friendship networks.

Research and Development Grant

The consumption of alcohol plays an important part in the way in which people create identities and live their social lives. Alcohol brands become embedded in everyday life through marketing practices, and this is amplified by an increase in new technologies that facilitate the transference of marketing messages. This research explores how alcohol brands use social networking sites (SNS) and packaging as part of their repertoire of marketing activities, and how users respond to these activities.

Research and Development Grant

This project, undertaken by Alcohol Concern, evaluates the impact of changes brought about by the Health and Social Care Act 2012, including the creation of Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) and Clinical Commissioning Groups, on alcohol. It will test two contrasting hypotheses: firstly, that alcohol treatment services are likely to see cuts due to the severe financial pressures on local authorities, heightened by the fact that alcohol treatment services are not mandated services for local authorities. Secondly, the more positive view that, because the total costs of alcohol harm to both local government and the acute sector are so significant, greater priority is likely to be attached to alcohol resulting in greater investment in alcohol measures, particularly in the prevention agenda.